"You still think we may be forced to defend ourselves?" asked State.
"I didn't say that, Marcus. I said we should remain alert."
Porter spoke up. "At the press briefing today, there were a number of questions about the new object in orbit. Wanted to know if we were considering sending a shuttle from the space station to investigate. I could only say that it still was under discussion. Is that still the case? I remember that it was mentioned earlier."
"The shuttle can leave within an hour," said John Crowell, of NASA. "It requires only a presidential order. The station has been alerted and the shuttle crew is standing by."
"How difficult an undertaking would it be?" asked the President.
"A fairly simple exercise," said Crowell. "Both the station and the object are in synchronous orbits, displaced from one another by less than a thousand miles. Using the shuttle for a closer look would seem to be to our advantage. Using the telescope on the station, which is not, as you may know, an astronomical glass, but one of rather limited power, we have been able to pick up some information. The object is much larger than had first been believed. It measures nearly twenty miles in diameter and is five miles thick. In the form of a disc. It seems not to be a single, solid object; rather it is made up of discrete parts."
"The thing that is in the back of everyone's mind, of course," said Porter, "is that it may have something to do with our visitor. That it may be a mother ship."
"I think we should send out a shuttle," said the President, "and find out what it really is." He asked Crowell, "Can you see any danger?"
"Nothing specific that I am aware of," said Crowell. "In the case of an unknown, danger can't be entirely ruled out."
"How do the rest of you feel about it?" asked the President. "See any complications?"
"There may be complications," said the Attorney General, "but it's something we must do. We should know what's out there, what we may have to deal with. But I think the pilot should be ordered to be extremely cautious. Careful to stir up nothing. No overt moves. Absolutely no heroics."
"I agree," said State.
"So do I," said Interior.
A murmur of assent went around the table.
11. LONE PINE
Jerry was across the river and waiting when Kathy came down the hill back of the motel He was sitting at the edge of a clump of plum trees that screened him from sight of the bridge a quarter mile or so upriver.
Kathy came around the clump of plums and saw him there. She tossed the pair of shoes she was carrying at him.
"You can get rid of the waders now," she said. "I hope I got the right size."
"I wear eights," said Jerry.
"These are eights and a half. I couldn't remember. Maybe I never knew. Better too big than too small. Sightseers are walking in, getting past the troopers. Without the waders, no one will take a second look at you."
"Thanks," said Jerry. "I was worried about the waders."
She came over and sat down beside him. He put an arm around her and pulled her close, bent down to kiss her.
"This is a nice place you have," she said. "Let's stay here for a while and talk. I have a lot of questions. Back there this morning, you never gave me a chance to ask any. Now go ahead and tell me.
"Well, I told you I was inside that thing. I wasn't the only one. There was a fish, a rabbit, a coon and a muskrat."
"You said they wanted to look you over. Did they want to look over the rest of them, too?"
"I think so. You're an alien, say, and you land on another planet. You would want to find out real quick what kind of life there is."
"Why don't you just begin at the beginning and tell me in detail all that happened."
"You'll interrupt me, ask questions."
"No, I won't. I'll just stay quiet and listen."
"And you won't write me up? You won't write a story about me?"
"Depends on how good the story is. And if it can be written. But if you say no, I won't. I may argue with you about it, but if you still say no, I won't."
"That's fair enough. I drove out of my way yesterday to get to this place because I'd been told about the big rainbow in the pool below the bridge. When I got here, I knew I could spend no more than half an hour because there was this concert you wanted to go to and.
"So you did remember the concert?"
"How could I forget it? You'd bullied me and threatened me.
"All right, go on and tell the rest of it."
He went on and told her, with only a few interruptions.
"Why didn't you come back to Lone Pine last night?" she asked when he was finished. "You knew about this place where you could wade the river."
"Not then," he said. "Not until later. Not until this morning. I was lost last night—all night. When the thing threw me out, I lost all sense of direction and it was dark. I couldn't even find that thing you call the visitor. So I found what seemed to be a path. The only way I could follow it was on my hands and knees. When I tried to walk, I kept blundering into trees. Crawling, I could feel the path with my hands. I followed the path because I thought it might lead me somewhere. But it didn't; it finally petered out. ‘When that happened, I knew I had to wait for morning. So I crawled under a small conifer. Its branches hung down to the ground and sheltered me from the wind. But, even so, it was cold. I had no matches to start a fire.
"And you stayed until it was light?"
"That's right. Then I heard trees falling and that growling sound the visitor makes when it chews them up. I didn't know, of course, that it was the visitor doing it. I didn't know what was going on. This is a primitive wilderness area and no one is supposed to be chopping down trees. But I didn't think about that at the time. I only knew there'd be someone who could tell me how to get to Lone Pine.~~
"Then you saw the troopers at the bridge and got scared off?"
"Exactly. So I scouted down the river and found this place where I could cross. Then I heard people on this side of the river and went back to have a look. That's when I spotted you."
"I still don't entirely understand," she said, "why you don't want anyone to know you were inside the visitor."
"Don't you see? I haven't a shred of proof to back up my story. I'd just be another jerk trying to capitalize on a flying saucer landing. The country must be all stirred up by now."
"It is," said Kathy. "Washington, perhaps, the worst of all. I told you about the FBI who are here. A team of scientific observers got in this afternoon."
"If anyone suspected I had been inside that thing," said Jerry, "they'd snatch me up and question me. I could tell them with a good conscience, of course, but I couldn't prove my story. I'd feel like a fool and they probably wouldn't believe me and sooner or later, I would get into the news and half the people would think I was lying and what is worse, the other half would believe me
"Yes, I see your point," said Kathy.
"What I have to tell wouldn't help much," he said, "but once they got me, they wouldn't let loose. They'd keep on pestering me and questioning me, trying to trap me in lies. Like as not they'd drag me off to Washington and I have my thesis that I am working on
"Yes, you're right," said Kathy. "I don't know. I think just possibly you made the right decision."
"You mean, then, that you're not going to argue about making a story out of me."
"I don't think I would dare to," she said. "It would sound like sheer hogwash, pure sensationalism. No evidence at all to document the story. Just your unsupported word for it. I can imagine what Al Lathrop would say."